Almost Classical

On February 2, 2012, President Obama spoke at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. This event dates back to Eisenhower, and is generally used to talk about unity and shared values. Not this year. Instead, Obama used the opportunity to promote his tax policies. I do not mind a politician being guided by his or her ethical foundation, including religious beliefs, as long as those beliefs do not infringe upon my freedom. However, politicians of all types tend to misquote scriptures and misrepresent them. I'd rather politicians not attempt to be theologians. Keep religion out of politics. Period. (I also dislike ending every speech with "God Bless America!" If there is a Creator, the entire world needs some blessings about now.) I wrote this blog entry less than a year ago: http://roguerhet.blogspot.com/2011/05/wwjd-rhetoric-scripture-and-taxes.html The president's speech is filled with misrepresentations of the Bible, selective readings that do not reflect the ...

From The Secular Humanist (paraphrased): Atheists/agnostics are now 18% of U.S. voters, trending center-left and libertarian. "The non-religious are most likely to live in Purple Districts" a study found. Church attendance is equated with "social conservative" in the U.S., but used to be "liberal" (1920s-40s Social Gospel movement). The "far left" is now more likely to be "alternatively spiritual" -- Wicca? Druid? Marxist-Wiccanism. Who knew? I was struck by this finding. Therefore, the two major parties need to pay attention to the non-religious if they want to win future elections. Self-identified "Spiritual and/or religious" people occupy the two political extremes, with some notable exceptions. Yes, there are progressive atheists, but I think many of these are what the author would group with social democrats, not radical socialists or Marxists. Apparently, there are a lot of New Age people on the far left. That would ...

From the University of Minnesota, a public institution supported by lots of tax dollars (and money from hard-working parents): UMN News (April 2008) MINNESOTA PHOTOGRAPHER CRAIG BLACKLOCK has been named senior fellow by the U's Center for Spirituality and Healing. As a fellow, he will support the center's ongoing research and education in optimal healing environments (the use of nature and art to promote healing in health care facilities). Blacklock's work, inspired by the north shore, is now featured throughout the center and the Medical Center's Transitional Care Unit, UMTC. What? We have a "Center for Spirituality and Healing" while many professors are quick to judge various Christian believers. I just wrote about my disgust with funding any religious group on campus, only to be reminded we have an entire center dedicated to what seems like New Age nonsense. I don't understand how people so opposed to Christianity and Judaism tend to embra...

I realize there might be good reasons for universities to host "student government" organizations. I'm sure there was a time when these groups dealt with serious issues, especially if they questioned wasteful spending and demanded quality professors, facilities, et cetera. However, we now have student organizations galore, many of which have no academic value and others that merely serve to segregate students. At my ideal university, absolutely no student funds (tuition or "fees") would be used for any organization with a religious affiliation. None. If these organizations want to form, on their own, and do their own fundraising, fine. They can also pay "facilities fees" for meetings on campus that might require staff (moving chairs, emptying trash after, and such things all require labor and cost money). We don't need (and I don't really want) Catholic, Lutheran, Evangelic, Jewish, or Muslim organizations receiving any support fr...

A lot has happened in the last few months, and even now I don’t find myself particularly motivated to write on most of the events. Instead, I like to see patterns and comment on those large, inescapable patterns politicians and the public would rather ignore. Islamic radicals have been a “pattern” since the start of the religion. I don’t mean that every Islamic individual or even Islamic nation has been a problem, but I do mean that Islam seems to have a fair number of radical believers unwilling to enter the modern world. I’m tired of the excuse that Christianity was “just as bad” in some way. I’m not a Christian, and I’m not about to defend any religion or Colonialism, but I also don’t think we should be comparing a current problem to the sins of humanity over the last six thousand or more years. Yes, the Crusades were terrible — but the Muslim nations won! Yes, the Ottoman Empire fell and European powers sliced up the Middle East, but Arab leaders sided with Hitler; not exactly ...